While filming the dragon-riding scene, Kit Harington stated one of his testicles got caught in the mechanical dragon buck he was riding. "In my head, I thought, this is how it ends... swinging by my testicles," he said.
Bronn's prostitutes are Marei (Josephine Gillan, redhead), Dirah (Marina Lawrence-Mahrra, brunette) and Craya (Lucy Aarden, blonde); only the recurring Marei comes from the novels. They mention Lannister soldiers named "Archie", "William" and a "ginger Eddie" who "came back with his face burned right off. He's got no eyelids now". This is a reference to one of the Lannister soldiers played by Ed Sheeran in Dragonstone (2017); Archie and William may have been part of that group as well. Apparently, Eddie was present when Daenerys assaulted the Lannister army with Drogon during the Battle of the Goldroad in The Spoils of War (2017). Sheeran replied on Instagram the next day, "Thanks @gameofthrones, I knew I was a survivor".
Secrecy around the season was so tight, that, for the first time in the show, even the title of the first episode wasn't revealed until after it aired on HBO.
In the first seven seasons, the opening titles began with an intricate astrolabe depicting historic events from Westeros and Essos that predate the show: the Doom of Valyria and Robert's Rebellion. A maximum of six places were then visited on a huge map, and as a rule, four were always depicted: Winterfell, King's Landing, the Wall and Daenerys' location. For the final season, the opening titles have been completely redesigned since most of the characters and storylines have come together in fewer locations: the map shows Westeros from the POV of the White Walkers, starting with the breached Wall; white tiles depict their march towards Last Hearth. Winterfell and King's Landing are then seen in far more extensive animations, while still adhering to the old rule as Daenerys is also at Winterfell. The astrolabe now depicts (in reversed order) three crucial events that occurred during the show's run and led to the current moment in history: the breaching of the Wall, a flayed man holding a wolf's head (the Red Wedding), and the birth of Daenerys' dragons.
As Daenerys arrives in the cold North, it also marked the first time that Emilia Clarke shot scenes on the Winterfell set in Iceland; the scene where Jon and Daenerys have a talk before they ride the dragons was actually the final scene that Clarke shot for the series. The moment where Jon shows Daenerys the stunning beauty of the North parallels the real-life situation where Kit Harington, who had already been friends with Clarke for years, was happy to finally be able to show her the national parks that they were allowed to shoot in.